Get the guide of the exact supplements I recommend in this episode here: https://thesleepdetective.com/supplements


Or see the supplements in my online dispensary: https://us.fullscript.com/plans/mlewis1604344053-podcast-supplements


Ready to solve your sleep issues once and for all? Schedule a consultation to get started with the Complete Sleep Solution program: https://p.bttr.to/3VJwvDs


You’ve tried the supplements — magnesium, melatonin, maybe ashwagandha or CBD — and you’re still not sleeping.


The problem usually isn’t that supplements don’t work. It’s that most people are taking the wrong ones for their body.


In this episode, I break down how I actually use supplements with my clients based on what’s going on underneath their sleep issues, not guesswork.


You’ll get:

  • The exact supplement categories I use with my clients (and why)
  • Specific supplements I actually recommend — not just general ideas
  • Access to my supplement guide with everything listed + links (including 20% off)


If you’ve been trying supplements without results, this will help you understand what’s missing — and what to do differently.


00:00 Why Supplements Aren’t Working

01:05 Kerry’s Sleep Struggle

03:02 Safety Disclaimer

03:28 Cortisol supplements

07:20 Hormones supplements

08:34 Neurotransmitter supplements

12:12 Liver Detox Support

14:12 Minerals Beyond Magnesium

17:02 Toxins supplements

20:12 Gut Health supplements

24:13 Gut Pathogen supplements

26:43 Kerry’s Recovery


Episode Transcript


[00:00:00] You've tried magnesium, melatonin, maybe ashwagandha, turmeric, CBD, and you're still not sleeping. Here's what I've noticed after working with hundreds of clients who came to me with a bag full of supplements that weren't working. It's not, the supplements don't help.


The problem is most people are taking the wrong ones for their body. They read something online or a friend recommended it, or they grabbed something off the shelf that said sleep support on the label.


I am Martha Lewis, functional health and sleep coach. In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through the exact categories of supplements I recommend to my clients, why I recommend them, and why what you've tried so far hasn't worked. By the end you'll know exactly how to think about supplements for sleep. And why most of what's out there isn't addressing the reason you can't sleep normally. And I'm going to tell you the actual specific supplements I recommend and which ones are fine without testing and which [00:01:00] ones I recommend testing first to make sure your body actually needs them.


Now before I get into the categories of supplements, I wanna talk about my client, Kerry. She had been struggling for sleep for two years when she came to me. And she hadn't been sitting around doing nothing about it, right? She'd seen her doctor, she tried sleep restriction therapy where they tell you to only allow yourself a few hours in bed and force yourself to get up if you can't sleep. That was horrible for her, which I can only imagine. She'd done CBT, hypnotherapy, seen an herbalist, a chiropractor, and gotten hormone replacement therapy from her doctor. She even made a list one night of everything she tried because she couldn't remember it all.


And on top of all that, she was taking a stack of supplements every day: turmeric, omega 3s, Turkey tail, mushrooms, vitamin D and K, ashwagandha, magnesium, melatonin, vitamin C, apple cider [00:02:00] vinegar, and inulin. So she was trying to do everything right and it all seemed right on paper.


But she was going for sometimes five nights in a row without any sleep at all. She was shaking from exhaustion, and her nervous system was so dysregulated she couldn't even sleep in the same bed as her husband. She'd stopped seeing friends, she'd pull back from work. She told me she was in such a hole and she didn't know how to get out of it.


When Kerry came to me, she wasn't looking for another supplement to add to the list. She wanted someone to tell her why none of it was working and help her figure out what would actually work.


And so her story is exactly why I want to talk about supplements differently today. Because the question isn't whether supplements work. The question is whether they're addressing what's actually broken in your body. So let me walk you through the categories I look at with every single client and what testing showed me was [00:03:00] really going on with Kerry.


Now I haven't shared exact supplements I recommend until now for legal reasons. So before I get into this, I really wanna be clear. I'm not a doctor. Nothing in this episode is medical advice. These are supplements I've used with my clients based on functional lab testing results. So what works for one person might not be right for another. Please work with a qualified practitioner before starting any new supplement protocol.


Now most people think they can't sleep because they're stressed. But actually stress and cortisol is a symptom of what's happening in the body at night. So the body should not be releasing cortisol in the middle of the night. And if it is, there are reasons why and that's what we really want to address.


So my long-term plan is always let's find and fix the imbalances that are stressing your body out at night. But in the meantime, it can help to take supplements to [00:04:00] help our bodies deal with stress better. But the supplement I recommend depends on what people's test results actually show.


So there is a supplement called Cortisol Relief and something very similar called Cortisol Manager that actually have phospholserine in it, which directly lowers cortisol.


The problem with taking the supplement before testing is that if your body actually isn't making a lot of cortisol, then that's going to make you feel even worse. You're going to feel even more tired and depleted if we continue to lower cortisol, especially without addressing the root cause of why cortisol is high. So that's why I recommend this one only once I've gotten someone's test results.


Now, in a minute I'll show you one that I think is generally safe for everyone, but I just want to explain why first. So one of the tests I used to look at cortisol is called the hormone zoomer. I've also used the [00:05:00] Dutch in the past. They're very similar.


So this is going to look at total cortisol levels. It's going to look at metabolized cortisol, which is how much cortisol your body's making. Then it's going to look at your pattern throughout the day with both urine and saliva. So in this slide you can see that this is looking at the urine.


And first morning is a sample someone takes when they first wake up. This is actually representing cortisol levels in the middle of the night since the last time they urinated. Because if you think about it, the urine you are excreting in the morning has been accumulating throughout the night.


So this client's cortisol levels are super high in the middle of the night. No wonder they aren't sleeping. In this case, and because total cortisol levels are high and metabolized, cortisol is high, I would recommend this cortisol relief to help directly lower [00:06:00] cortisol. While we're going to address why cortisol is so high, I.


Then I do have other clients whose actual total cortisol is low. And even though cortisol could still be disrupting sleep, what it means is that their body has been stressed for so long that it isn't even able to make enough cortisol to keep up with the demand anymore.


In this graph, cortisol levels are still in the green, but you see they're at the very low end of the green there. So for this person, I would not recommend the cortisol relief for cortisol manager because I don't wanna lower cortisol anymore. So what's more appropriate in this case is. Something called nighttime HPA by Gaia herbs.


And HPA stands for hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis. So we think of stress and cortisol, we think of our adrenal glands, but it's actually the hypothalamus tells the pituitary, which tells the adrenal glands to make cortisol and other hormones.


So this blend, I think, is pretty [00:07:00] safe for anyone 'cause it just helps a body have a better response to stress. It has ashwagandha and some other adaptogenic herbs. It also has some relaxation herbs like lemon balm and magnolia bark. So it's not going to sedate you, but it can help the body get into a more relaxed state and calm down.


Now for hormones. There are times when, especially for some of my female clients who might be in perimenopause approaching menopause or in menopause, even some of my male clients, sometimes I am recommending that they go to a doctor and get hormone replacement therapy or you know, confirm their hormone results with blood work and kind of correlate the two together.


I will say these are a couple supplements I recommend for clients in pre menopause, perimenopause to help balance hormones. They were really helpful for me kind of early on in that time.


If you wanna [00:08:00] list of all the supplements I'm going to talk about, I put together a one page supplement guide organized by the exact categories we're talking about in this episode: cortisol, neurotransmitters, gut minerals, and more. With the specific supplements I actually recommend under each one. Plus a quick note on why you'd used each and which ones I recommend with and without testing. It also includes direct links to almost everything at 20% off, so you don't have to guess what to buy or go searching for it. You can download the guide using the link in the description.


Now your brain might have a chemistry problem if you aren't sleeping, and no amount of magnesium or melatonin is going to fix a low GABA or serotonin. So gaba, serotonin, dopamine are some of our inhibitory neurotransmitters, which means they're kind of the brakes on our brain chemistry. And so we need [00:09:00] enough of these neurotransmitters to feel calm and relaxed and able to sleep.


And you really can't know which ones are low without testing.. I run a neurotransmitter test. I used to run this one on here by M 2 Institute called the Neuro Focus Panel. Now I'm using vibrant wellness tests, so their gut zoomer includes neurotransmitters.


So when some of these are low, I will recommend five HTP, which is the precursor to serotonin, and then serotonin is actually the precursor to melatonin. So five HTP can help boost those levels. We also know a lot of serotonin for mood. I will tell you, for me, I didn't have any mood issues, but my serotonin was very low and it was definitely one factor affecting my sleep.


GABA is our anti-anxiety neurotransmitter. So if you're feeling wired and anxious all the time, or especially at night, it could be because your body doesn't have enough gaba. So we can supplement [00:10:00] directly with either L-theanine, which is a precursor to GABA or GABA itself. Now I will say that most GABA supplements do not go through the blood-brain barrier.


But this liposomal gaba l-theanine, I recommend here, this is one of my favorite supplements, um, many of my clients have great luck with it and it actually can get through the blood brain barrier. Same with something called Pharma gaba. The reason I love this liposomal one though is because it absorbs really quickly in the mouth and it doesn't have to go through the digestive tract. So it can also be great before bed and in the middle of the night if you're waking up, it's worth trying then to see if it can help you relax and be able to go back to sleep. And this one is actually one that I recommend that I think most people could try without testing and even knowing that GABA's low.


And then dopamine, we think of it as our reward neurotransmitter, but it's [00:11:00] also really important in our sleep cycle. I like a supplement called Dopamine Assist. It has some herbs, some vitamins. It also has DL phenalalynine. Which is a precursor to dopamine and epinephrine and norepinephrine, which are some of our stress hormones that are often low if you can't sleep as well.


Now there are other neurotransmitters called our excitatory or stimulating neurotransmitters that can really disrupt sleep when they're too high. So glutamate histamine, acetylcholine is another one, and there are many others as well.


To help lower these excitatory neurotransmitters, like glutamate, there's something called glutamate scavenger. For histamine, which is kind of our allergic response, I recommend something called histamine, scavenger, sometimes some other supplements as well to help with this.


Kerry had a lot of these depleted neurotransmitters across the board. So I recommended [00:12:00] five HTP for her, and she actually lives in the uk, so I was recommending a kind of different supplement for her that. It has magnesium, glycine, and tart cherry in it.


Your liver is most active at night, so if it's overburdened, it can definitely affect your sleep. And that's because the liver's trying to detoxify hormones in the middle of the night. And when there are more than it can handle, those toxins end up circulating around causing inflammation. And whenever there's inflammation, your body releases cortisol. So this is one of the root causes of that high cortisol at night.


I assess for liver issues with both symptoms and my intake questionnaires. And there are markers on the tests that show that, especially methylation on the hormone zoomer or Dutch test. And there are other markers as well that I look for on that test 'cause it shows how those hormones are being metabolized by the body [00:13:00] and the liver's supposed to get rid of excess hormones or used hormones as well.


I tend to recommend if someone's having trouble with methylation, then the methyl b complex is a great one. So it has folate, which is necessary for methylation and it has methyl vitamin B12. And it also has some milk thistle in it.


Liver nutrients is a great kind of general liver kind of support supplement supplying the nutrients the body needs.


And one of my favorites is cell cores KL support, which stands for kidney liver support. It also has milk thistle, but also N-Acetyl cysteine, um, Sulforaphane, which can also help with liver detox. So it's a broad spectrum liver support as well, so which one I recommend depends on the client, depends on what their lab tests, show what their symptoms are. So it is different for everyone.


Now Kerry's results. [00:14:00] You know, I did see some detox issues on her tests and the intake form, so I recommended the KL support and a folate and B12 supplement similar to that methyl B complex.


Now you're probably taking magnesium 'cause that's what we always hear about for sleep. But there are three other minerals that are just as critical for sleep and almost nobody talks about them. So there's magnesium, but also calcium, sodium, potassium. And we actually want them to all be in balance with each other.


So a lot of times I'm seeing different imbalances where calcium, magnesium is way higher than sodium potassium. Or vice versa. Or just depleted minerals across the board, which you can see on this test here.


The primary minerals they're called are all on the left calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium. And you can see that all of these are below the white box here, which would be the ideal levels.


A lot of times, you know, getting these minerals from food [00:15:00] isn't enough. One reason is because our soils are depleted in minerals in this day and age. And another is if the gut isn't healthy, then we aren't getting the minerals we need from food. And if we aren't eating enough protein, a lot of minerals come from protein as well as vegetables, but from meat sources, so then we aren't necessarily getting enough in that way.


So again, it depends on the client as to what I recommend. Beam Minerals has their Electrolyze and Microboost from humic and fulvic acid, so it's providing dozens of trace minerals in very small amounts so the body can absorb what it needs. CT minerals is similar but in a capsule, and I think they're both really helpful for balancing minerals and for helping actually clear some heavy metals as well. I've seen that in myself and my clients.


And then there's a custom supplement called Vykon that I recommend [00:16:00] for some of my clients, especially, you know, for someone like this who's super depleted in all four of those minerals, the trace minerals aren't necessarily gonna be enough. So the Vykon makes special formulas depending on that person's pattern. And then what I love about it is I can add other things to it. So we can add things for liver support, we can add B vitamins, and so it, it becomes one supplement that's combining multiple ones to really simplify someone's plan.


So Kerry also definitely had some mineral imbalances with all four of those, so I recommended CT minerals. There's something called B-C-A-T-P as well by cell core that helps with the minerals. And also really increasing foods high in potassium and even is surprising that a lot of people are low in sodium, and so adding sea salt to water can help [00:17:00] boost sodium throughout the day.


Another one of the most overlooked drivers of sleep issues and almost nobody tests for it are toxins. So mold and mycotoxins, heavy metals, environmental chemicals, pfas, they all add to our toxic burden and can cause inflammation when the body isn't able to get rid of them.


And you know, we're exposed to toxins all the time, so it's not like we can get away from it. And our liver and other detox organs are supposed to be able to get rid of these toxins. But when there are too many coming in, then it becomes impossible, and the liver gets backed up.


So we can do what we can to minimize our exposure to these things. And this is something I help my clients directly with by finding which toxins are there and then giving them an exact plan of, okay, how can we reduce our exposure to those toxins.


And then also [00:18:00] the gut can produce its own toxins. So when there are pathogens living in the gut, those things are releasing toxins that, that the liver has to deal with. And so this is why people tell me, well, I don't drink, so my liver must be fine. And it's like, no, we're exposed to all these toxins, your body could be making toxins inside itself and you have no idea. And I will tell you, almost all of my clients need liver support and have a lot of toxins going on.


One of the ways besides reducing exposure that I recommend is taking a binder. And this is something that will bind to those toxins and pull them from the body safely to help remove them.


There are a few different ones that I recommend it. It depends on the person and their preferences. Cell core makes these great binders that are very convenient because with their advanced technology, you can take them anytime.


More [00:19:00] traditional binders like activated charcoal and bentonite clay and zeolite, you need to take away from food and other supplements because they combine to nutrients as well as the toxins. But cell cores advanced technology means that you can take them anytime, but they're very specific as well.


So if someone's dealing with multiple toxins, then the biotoxin binder is more for mold, mycotoxins, and gut toxins, whereas the HMET stands for heavy Metals Environmental Toxins. So if someone's having multiple toxins in different categories, like most people are, then you'd wanna take both of those.


Then the GI Detox is another option that I offer my clients. It's something called broad spectrum, so it has multiple kinds of binders in it. It has the zeolite, the clay, the charcoal, and more. So what's great is that you only need one, and it addresses lots of different toxins, but again, you have to take that away from food and other supplements. [00:20:00] So sometimes timing that can be tricky.


Now, Kerry did have plenty of mycotoxins, and so she ended up doing the biotoxin binder for a while.


And then we get into gut health. And I've done multiple videos and episodes about gut health and how the gut affects sleep, so there are many reasons for this.


I can briefly say that the gut is where 90% of our neurotransmitters, like serotonin, gaba, dopamine, are produced. When there are pathogens in the gut those cause a lot of inflammation. They release a lot of toxins. They're most active around two and 3:00 AM so this is a very common reason for why people are waking up at that time and when there's leaky gut or the gut lining has become compromised, then there's just a lot of chronic inflammation, and that can also [00:21:00] mean the body has to make cortisol all the time so that's affecting the body both day and night.


There's gut support where I'm actually supporting the health of the gut, and then there's actually getting rid of any pathogens that might be there that we don't want.


So if someone has low elastase, then that is an enzyme that digests protein, and so then I tend to recommend this digestive enzymes ultra for that. Same with vegetable fibers detected or meat fibers detected. That can mean someone either isn't chewing their food well enough or that their body isn't breaking down that food well enough.


And then there are also some markers for fat digestion that I'm looking at. So when someone's fat digestion is compromised, then I recommend a specific enzyme called lypo gold. It has more lipase, which is a enzyme that digests fat then, and then it still has other enzymes to help [00:22:00] with protein and carbs and everything else. And then sometimes there are also nons supplement things you can do to help with digestion; you don't always have to take a supplement for this. Having apple cider vinegar before meals can help stimulate bile production by the liver, which will help with digestion. Same with taking a bitters supplement. It has the same effect.


And then there are also markers for immune function in the gut and for leaky gut. SIG A stands for secretory IGA. And in a lot of my clients, this has become really depleted. This is kind of the first line of defense against pathogens in the gut. So if someone shows a parasite or h pylori, it could have been there for years, and so over time, the immune system in the gut cannot keep up.


And then the gut zoomer has a direct measure for zonulin, which is one way to measure for leaky gut. So there are [00:23:00] various products I recommend for this, um, mega Mucosa or Mega IgG 2000. It kind of depends on where people are coming from. A lot of times, like in this case, for someone's sig A is this low, I would recommend Mega IgG 2000 for a couple months and then switch to Mega Mucosa.


Mega Marine is a fish oil supplement specific to the gut. So it's great if there's a lot of inflammation in the gut, which is something else that the gut zoomer tests for. And then restore. Flora is one of my favorite probiotics. It is what's called a spore base probiotic, instead of it being those lacto bifido strains from dairy.


But I actually recommend testing before taking most of these, because even probiotics, 'cause sometimes I see people with a ton of bacterial growth and so taking more good bacteria is just adding more fuel to the fire. So I definitely believe in testing. [00:24:00] I do think if you know there's inflammation, that the mega marine is pretty safe for anyone. Most people are deficient in Omega-3 fatty acids, so it's probably going to be beneficial for most people.


And then we get into, okay, what if there are pathogens in the gut? So the tests are looking for h pylori, for parasites, for candida or other fungus, and for bacterial overgrowth. And there are different supplements I recommend for each of those.


One of the first things I recommend is what's called a biofilm buster. All of these pathogens create a biofilm or protective shield around themselves, and it keeps things from getting in and killing them, including antibiotics or herbs.


So Biocidin has biofilm busting property, so it helps start breaking down that biofilm. It also has antimicrobial, antifungal, [00:25:00] anti-parasitic properties, so it's kind of like a four in one. So this is one of my go-tos.


Another option that I've started experimenting with recently is something called microbmanager, that it also has biofilm busting properties and is a broad spectrum supplement meant for all of these possible types of pathogens.


But if someone's mainly dealing with bacterial overgrowth, then I recommend Olivirex. Someone's mainly dealing with h pylori, I recommend the Pylori X. And if someone's mainly dealing with mycotoxins or candida, then I recommend the candid X.


So for Kerry, her test results showed h pylori and bacterial overgrowth. I ended up recommending Biocidin candid X and a lot of times I'll also recommend a colloidal silver nasal spray for someone with mycotoxins because those mold spores can actually live in the nasal cavity.


And I also wanna add that I ended up recommending that Kerry [00:26:00] see her doctor about getting on hormone replacement therapy again. The reason it didn't help with her sleep before is because she had all these other imbalances, so it wasn't enough on its own to help, but it still was a piece of the puzzle.


And I think that this is important to keep in mind 'cause I'll recommend things to my clients sometimes and they're like, already tried that already tried that. And this is the thing; those things are still important. They're still a piece of the puzzle. They just weren't the only piece. So even though they're still going to be very helpful, it wasn't enough by itself. But when we do that and the other things I'm recommending at the same time, then the body can get back in balance and they're all helping.


When we got Kerry's test results back, it was clear why nothing had worked. Almost none of what she was taking was targeted at what was actually broken, and so some of it was making things worse and pushing her nervous system further into stress mode when it was already super [00:27:00] stressed.


I started by supporting her body. This is what I believe comes first, is we need to give the body what it's missing first.


So supporting liver detox, her neurotransmitters, her minerals, her cortisol. And then eradicating the toxins and the gut pathogens. And then she ended up getting back on hormone replacement therapy, which was the final piece.


Her sleep kept improving. It wasn't a straight line. Kerry will tell you herself that it was a roller coaster, but it was generally trending up, which is normal and what I'm looking for. She was able to get back into her own bed with her husband. She stopped relying on sleeping pills, and this was huge for her. She started exercising again, seeing friends, going on vacations.


And you can watch her video next telling about her story and journey in [00:28:00] the program, but she said, I don't worry about going to sleep. I can go to bed in the same bed as my husband. Most nights I sleep quite well. I can go on holiday, I can go out with friends. I can just do things and I don't worry. I feel like I can live normally, which is great.

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